A
DOSSIER on the Anti-Defamation League's penetration of US
and San Francisco police agencies and its illegal use of
police databases. ADL officials were prosecuted for this
felony, and subsequently reached an out of court settlement
with the District Attorney under which they paid a
substantial penalty -- to be used for combatting racist
groups.

Summary:
The "Anti-Defamation League"
(ADL)
was found to be spying on Arab Americans and Progressive
Organizations, and sharing the information with Israeli and
South African Intelligence agencies.

In early 1993, an employee of the (so-called)
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai Brith was found to be spying
on Arab Americans and a large number of progressive
organizations. He had collected files on over 10,000
individuals and 600 organizations - everyone from the Arab
Amercian Antidiscrimination Committee and the ACLU to the
African National Congress and the Centro Legal de La Raza,
to the Earth Island Institute and Greenpeace, including even
twenty San Francisco area labor unions and a large number of
Central America solidarity organizations. Information on
anti-apartheid activists was passed on to South African
intelligence agents.

At the time, a number of articles was written covering this
spy scandal. Most appeared in west coast newspapers. The
case was also covered by progressive magazines such as The
Nation. Related articles which are not reproduced on this
website are referenced in the list below.

Dennis Opatrny, Scott Winokur, Police Said to Help
Spy on Political Groups - Anti-Defamation League Seeks
Info Nationwide, San Francisco Examiner, March 9, 1993,
Page A-1.

Robert Friedman, in the May 11, 1993 issue of The
Village Voice.

Chip Berlet and Dennis King in Tikkun magazine,
July/August 1993.

Alexander Cockburn in his bi-weekly Beat the Devil
column, published in The Nation. [Cockburn predicts
(correctly) that the case will be dropped due to
political pressure on the district attorney and mayor's
office.]

San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1993.

Unfortunately, during this entire episode, there was
barely a mention of the case in the New York Times.